Chuck Sweeny: Report touts government streamlining – read it

Saturday

State task force on consolidation and streamlining of local governments in Illinois must not be ignored. Plus, the departure of Tim Hanson, Rockford's Public Works director, is a loss for the city.

Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti's Task Force on Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates released its report Monday on how to streamline Illinois' governments to save tax dollars. Gov. Bruce Rauner called for the task force in February 2015.

The group met 16 times around the state and put together a list of 27 recommendations. Reps. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, and Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, are the members closest to the greater Rockford area. The task force's work was assisted by the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University.

Unfortunately, some media reports gave short shrift to the 400-page report, preferring to concentrate on the parts that would require implementation of some the governor's controversial "Turnaround" agenda, which has pleased Republicans as pro-business and angered Democrats as anti-union.

That kind of coverage kissed off the entire report as politics as usual. But it isn't. It's valuable because it provides a blueprint for cutting our 6,963 units of government — the most in the nation by far — down to size.

Most of you won't read the whole thing, but I urge those of you interested in how Illinois governments work, and how they could work better, to read it at illinois.gov.

However, much if not most of this report puts in writing things I've been saying for decades: We have too many governments that often overlap in services. They all levy property taxes in vacuums and don't calculate their total impact on taxpayers. So it's no surprise that Illinois has the second-highest property taxes in the nation. Only New Jersey is higher.

That's an increase over 2005, when Illinois had the seventh-highest property taxes in the nation.

In addition, unfunded mandates passed by legislators add to the tax burden. The mandates appear out of nowhere and local governments have to figure out how to cover them from their already-stretched budgets. Usually, that requires cities, counties or school districts to reduce other services so they can fund the state mandate.

What's really insulting is that legislators run for re-election boasting that they "led the fight" to do something, without mentioning that you have to pay higher property taxes as the result.

The report's executive summary said 64 percent of our property taxes pay for public schools, compared with 62 percent a decade ago. In addition, Illinois is the only state where most residents must pay property taxes to three general-purposes governments: townships, cities and counties.

The report said 266 unfunded mandates have been imposed on cities since 1982, or eight new mandates each year. School districts have had 145 mandates imposed since 1992, an increase of six a year. Adjusting for inflation, government expenditures per capita increased nearly 24 percent during the past 20 years.

The task force concluded that Illinois' large number of governments, combined with "the soaring number of costly unfunded mandates are two major drivers of the high cost of government in the state. Developing a plan to alleviate some of these tax burdens on Illinois residents and businesses must focus on these two problems. Addressing local government consolidation in conjunction with costly unfunded mandates will alleviate the strain placed on taxpayers and help improve delivery of essential government services."

I'll be returning to this report again to discuss the 27 recommendations.

Tim Hanson resigns

I can't end this column without lamenting the resignation of Tim Hanson, Rockford's Public Works director. He said Friday that he's leaving Jan. 29 to become director of the Rock River Water Reclamation District on Feb. 1. Longtime director Steve Graceffa is retiring the same day as Hanson.

I've have never seen a Public Works director more competent, more service-oriented and more positive than Hanson, who came to government from UPS management. He cares about big things — building a new Morgan Street bridge and the Auburn-Main roundabout — and small things, such as fixing potholes that people report. Often he's appeared on the scene to make sure a pothole is fixed pronto.

Hanson has been an effective communicator on social media, taking to Facebook almost daily with reports and photographs of the projects his staff is working on, from major street reconstructions to water main breaks.

His departure is a huge loss for the city, and a huge gain for the Water Reclamation District. Might a run for local political office be in the offing? We'll have to see.

Chuck Sweeny: 815-987-1366; csweeny@rrstar.com; @chucksweeny

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